Review of Research Advances in Fruit and Vegetable Harvesting Robots

Abstract

The idea of applying machine technology for fruit and vegetable harvesting has been around for 50 years. Various prototypes have been developed through the joint efforts of scholars worldwide. However, the existing prototypes of harvesting robots are still in the experimental research stage due to their low harvesting efficiency. With the help of information technology, related research has reached a milestone, which is full of opportunities and challenges for harvesting robot researchers. This paper briefly introduces the composition and operation process of harvesting robots, so that readers have a clear understanding of harvesting robots and their harvesting principles. Then the research results of harvesting robots at home and abroad are systematically summarized, and the research progress of harvesting robots is analyzed in detail from three aspects: rapid and accurate identification and positioning of target fruits, end-effector of harvesting robots, and application of harvesting path planning in harvesting robots. The results show that improving harvesting efficiency is the focus and hot spot of harvesting robot research. With the impetus of information technology, how to achieve fast and accurate recognition of multiple environments and multi-information outcomes, obtain reasonable path planning, and further optimize control strategies are all important research directions.